Well for the anime did you go on to watch Neon Genesis Death and Rebirth and also The End of Evangelion? They both hold the ending that even the director of the Evangelion series(before they current rebuild that is going on now) said he wanted

I like Asuka. She is probably my favorite character in the series. A character I'm coming to like is Kwarou because he did not really appear much in the anime. I began to like him in his part of the Death and Rebirth movie.

I have to say my favourites from Evangelion are these two. For Rei because almost everytime I think of Evangelion besides Shinji I always associate the thought of the series with Rei and they same is said with Kaworu also. Though they are both just plain awesome. Though I like Rei especially when she gets to the point that she causes Shinji to lose his mind! Though for Kaworu he is one of my other favorites I just kind of had that not shocked but more of a surprised expression when he told Shinji "I love you" and then of all things Shinji blushes...